Race Review – F1 2018 League Round 1 @ Britain

ABOUT THE TRACK

The British GP is home to some of the best racing of the season, and a home track for many OTL drivers. The first race of a new season is always a tense one as drivers get to see where their pace is in comparison to everyone else.

The Silverstone lap is long one at 5.819km and lasts a brutal 52 laps consisting of 18 corners, most famous of which is Maggots and Becketts, a fast left to right hander that leads on to a long straight. The total race distance is 306.198km and the track not only holds f1 races, but supports GP3, GP2 and Porsche Super Cup.

HEADING INTO QUALIFYING

Qualifying was close throughout the entire field, and taking the first pole of the season was Reece360 hd 2 in the Force India wth a lap time of a 1.26.170, which was 0.351 faster than second place JamieOC2004. Reece led the session from start to finish but described the session as “the most tense I can remember”.

Midzy lined up on the second row in 3rd place with Dazfell behind him being the first guy to qualify on the medium compound after he backed off on his final soft run. In 5th place was AVERAGE SHARPIE, just behind him was OTL DAVEALEX4 and then Muellcomic. AshManDjango lined up in 8th, being the second car to start on the medium compound. Starting ninth was Ezzie1972 with MrFish1986 10th. Rounding off the grid were Legger in 11th, also starting on the medium compound, and Quilkor in 12th.

“I wasn’t feeling confident at first, I had done a few laps in time trial and was way off the pace. However I came into the session and the car felt great. After I topped the session with my first lap, I had a cool down lap and went even faster. I saw I was 8 tenths quicker than my nearest rival and my confidence came back”

Reece360 hd 2

HEADING INTO THE RACE

The top four got away nicely with Reece leading in front of Jamie, Midzy and then Dazfell. Legger on the other hand had received an unfortunate stop-go penalty for going off track when avoiding a spin in front of him, which put him to the back of the pack and gave him a mountain to climb. Ezzie, Muellcomic and Quilkor all moved up two places while OTL DAVEALEX4 had lost four places during the first lap incident.

MrFish1986 had also lost a few places during the start. AshmanDjango then lost the car and damaged his front wing, causing him to pit on lap 3 for a set of soft compound tires. Legger also joined him in the pits on lap 3 but put on the blue coloured hard compound tires on. Midzy was all over the back of Jamie and decided to try the undercut to try get past him, so he pitted on lap 9 with Jamie and Reece pitting a lap later, giving up the lead to Dazfell. Midzy couldn’t make the undercut work however and Jamie stayed ahead of Midzy after the pitstops.

At the same time AVERAGE SHARPIE was having a side by side battle with MrFish1986 as he came into the pits too. The battle between those two was very close but ultimately Midzy couldn’t get past. Reece tried to take second place from Quilkor who hadn’t stopped yet, but coming up to Brooklands Quilkor out-broke himself and forced Reece off the track, making him lose time to Jamie and Midzy behind. Quilkor then let Reece through on the same lap through Copse corner. Dazfell pitted on lap 16 to swap his medium tires for soft ones, giving the lead back to Reece, and came back out just behind Jamie and Midzy on the faster tire and was ready to fight hard.

Midzy was up first and while battling Dazfell had to go off track. Midzy, thinking he had forced Dazfell onto the gravel, gave the position back a few corners later. Dazfell then had a big battle with Jamie that lasted for a few corners, but finally got the job done. However he wasn’t able to pull away or make any gains on Reece up front. On the penultimate lap Jamie temporarily got the place back through Stowe after having a good exit through Chapel. Dazfell had gone off the track and rejoined side-by-side with Jamie as they came up to Club corner where Dazfell eventually got the position back.

After 26 strong and consistent laps, Reece360 hd 2 came home to win the first race of the season at his home track.

POST RACE INTERVIEWS

“After leading the race after the first corner my objective was simple, get out of DRS range and maintain a 2-3 second gap. I managed to do this while saving my tires and energy recovery system. Midzy then pulled the trigger by pitting first, I turned up my engine mode and pushed for my first and only time during the race and turned my 3 second lead into a 5 second lead in 1 lap and then pitted. It was getting near the end of the race and I was still conserving.

I knew Dazfell was going to be fast at the end of the race so I was just waiting until I had to push again. sure enough i saw Dazfell move into second place with a few laps to go. I kept a close eye on our sector times but saw Dazfell wasn’t really catching me, so I pushed a little harder, but it was a pretty easy race for me”.

Reece360 hd 2

“Not really much to say, I made a couple of costly mistakes which ruined my chances on the softs of catching Reece. The next race will be a matter of who can manage there tires the best, which I believe will be more in favour of the guys using assists. Pole isn’t something I see myself getting as I’m worried about my consistency.”

Dazfell

“My race went well, I had decent pace but not enough to win, I had too many penalties because I was cutting corners which I can work on. I did well to get ahead of Midzy as he pitted a lap earlier than me. I’m happy with P3 but I’m hoping for better next week. Based on our practice race in Singapore, I’ hoping to get at least 3rd.”

Jamie0C2004

“Silverstone is a great way to start the season, great battling with Jamie throughout most of the race, pace wasn’t where I wanted it to be but just have to focus on the next race and see what i can do. I’m not feeling confident around Singapore, I’d say its more of a damage limitation race but I’m still hoping for some good points. I reckon Dazfell will take pole but Reece360 hd 2 will take the win with Jamie ending off the podium. My objective will be 4th.”

Midzy

“I would say it was a very chilling race, but I had some problems with the setup, so I couldn’t really attack anyone, but never the less I’m happy with the result. I think Reece will get pole (in Singapore) but Dazfell is a certain candidate as he showed good pace last time. I hope I can get a podium with them, since Singapore is a track that I seem to like driving the most. Also i was second in a test race before the wall outside of turn 3 grabbed my tire and ended my race.”

Muellcomic

“I had a poor race after avoiding a turn 1 incident and was told to give the position back to one of the cars involved in a crash so race was ruined from turn 1, hoping to come back stronger next weekend and finish in top 7.”

Legger

Join us at Singapore next Sunday, October 14th 2018, for live coverage and commentary of Round 2 of the OTL F1 2018 Championship: https://www.twitch.tv/otl_racing